The TransomBooking magazine
Licensing, permits, weather calls and trip economics for US charter fishing captains and small boat tour operators.
Nine working pieces on the paperwork, the weather calls and the arithmetic behind a season, written for the captain who runs the boat and the office at the same time. Every article was published on , and questions go straight to Jimenez Julien.
practical guide
Deposits, captain's call weather rules and refund language decide who eats the loss when a front moves in. Here is how to build a policy clients agree to in writing and a processor will back in a dispute.
comparison
Six passengers or twenty seven, uninspected hull or inspected Subchapter T, inland or near coastal. The two credentials rest on different sea service, tonnage and vessel rules, and the choice sets your ceiling for years.
mistakes to avoid
A pleasure use hull policy will not answer for a paying passenger or an injured mate. These are the coverage gaps that surface after the claim: crew status, protection and indemnity limits, and who is named to run the boat.
regulation and compliance
Reef fish, coastal migratory pelagics, snapper grouper and highly migratory species each carry their own for hire permit, and most now carry a reporting duty. Here is what each covers and when filings are due.
case study
The 2019 Conception fire led to the Small Passenger Vessel Safety Act and Coast Guard rules on night watch, smoke detection and escape routes. Here is what each requirement asks of a boat and crew today.
trends and outlook
The DESCEND Act put a descending device on every reef fish boat in Gulf federal waters, and circle hook and safe release rules keep spreading. A look at the gear required now and the rules forming behind it.
checklist
Life jackets, visual distress signals, extinguishers, placards and the float plan left ashore. A dockside sweep in the order a boarding officer would run it, so nothing is missing when the lines come off.
numbers and benchmarks
Fuel burn at cruise, bait and ice, mate pay, slip fees, insurance, permits and a hull reserve. How to turn those line items into a defensible cost per trip and a floor price you will not undercut.
field report
The blue light comes on, a small boat comes alongside and two officers step aboard with paying passengers watching. A walk through of what gets checked, in what order, and how the trip usually resumes.
Keep the paperwork with the booking
Every rule above only helps if it is attached to the trip when the deposit goes through. TransomBooking holds the card, timestamps the weather policy the client agreed to and writes the float plan out of the manifest.
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